Thursday, January 23, 2014

Upon receiving the President's Merit Award at the Grammys, Neil gave a fascinating acceptance speech.

Neil Young:
“This is a cool night because
we’re all here together. I know almost everybody here. If I don’t know
you, I thought I did when I saw you. It really is great. A lot of us,
you know, producers and engineers. I’m kind of a producer, partially, an
engineer. I’m not really good at either one. It has hurt my records in
the past. We’re performance-oriented. Technical things don’t matter that
much.

That’s only one way of making records. A lot of you out
here are craftsmen: just beautiful records, and take great care with
every note. And I know I’m not one of them. I like to capture the
moment. I like to record the moment. I like to get the first time that I
sing the song. I like to get the first time the band plays the song.

There’s
a lot of compromises you make to get that feeling, but in the long run,
that’s where the pictures are when I hear my words and when I see the
pictures while I’m listening. That’s what we try to record.
Recording
is so important. We think about the equipment, we think about what are
we using, what do we have, what are we recording on, what are we singing
through, where is it going, how long is the wire? Why is that piece of
shit in the wire between me and where I’m going? Get that out! Don’t
join the wire together, get one wire, because every time you go through
one of those pieces of crap, something happens! We paid big bucks for
this place, and we’re going to use every bit of it. And we’re not going
to use what we don’t want. Thank you. Great recording here.

I did
record here! I think I recorded a few tracks here a long time ago.
There’s a song, “Like a Hurricane,” that I didn’t record here. But I
couldn’t sing at that time, when I recorded that, because I had just had
some sort of operation. They told me to stop for a month, but I
couldn’t stop the music, so in my studio at home, me and Crazy Horse got
together and we played this track.

It was about fifteen minutes
long, because I’d just written it the night before. I recorded it on an
acoustic – now let’s play with all these other instruments and it’s
going to be great. So we got the instruments out and we played it once.
And we screwed it up really badly at first. If you listen to the record,
you can tell we screwed it up.

We cut it off. It just starts out
of nowhere. But that was over. Now we’re in the record. And it’s
divided. It doesn’t matter how cool and together the beginning was. But
where it went as soon as it started. So we shortened it.

Then I
was here at this place in 1974 or something, and I said, “You know, a
couple of weeks ago, when I couldn’t sing…” By the way, I know I can’t sing. I mean I couldn’t make a sound.
And, of course, this was back in the day, way back there. So I’m
saying, “We have this tape here. I brought this piece to multitrack.
We’ve never played it. I’m going to sing it, because I never got a
chance to sing it.”
So we put it on, and he played back about ten seconds, and I said, “Okay, stop. Everything was working, right? We heard everything? Okay, then there’s no reason to listen to it. Because I was there; I know what it is. It’s on
the tape. We don’t have to listen to it. Let’s not wipe the shit off
the tape listening to it. Let’s record while the stuff is still on –
let’s listen to what’s there, and record it to two-track while it’s
still there.”

Because if you listen over and over and over again,
it goes away, bye-bye! Because the tape doesn’t like to rub over this
head, and then part of it goes away, it’s terrible! That bothers me every time the tape plays. So I never hardly ever listen!

Okay,
so they put the tape on and I went out and I talk: “Am I there?” Yes.
“Good. Okay. Record. Number one. Just record all the time – that’s why
we’re here! Don’t not record at all, ever. Record! It’s a studio!
Record! Practice at home! The red button’s not that scary, really not.”

So
we press the button and they start the tape, and I start singing the
song. It’s long, so it’s like, four or five verses over and over again.
So I sing one verse, and then the other verse – there’s only two verses,
so I just keep singing them, one after the other. Later on, we can cut
it down. The other guys aren’t here, and I hear the harmony part, so I
want to sing the harmonies now. We did the harmonies, so we did three
tracks, three times through, one time on each track. We had all this
stuff, and it was the first time I ever heard it. The first time I ever
listened to “Like a Hurricane.”

And I was hearing it, and I was
singing it, and I sang the harmony, and I sang the other harmony, and
then we mixed it. So it was like the fifth or sixth time, and then we
mixed it.

There’s a message in there somewhere.

My memory of this place is what it is, that we do records like that. The idea is, for me, to try to get magic. Who knows where the hell it’s coming from? I don’t. So please record. It’s expensive to sit here and not push the button.

I know who you people are. I know you’re animals, and I know some of you are very funny. Some of you are just dry. You never
laugh. Good morning. I love all you people, because I know what you’re
doing. I know how crazy you are about all the things that I don’t care
about.

Sometimes you make great records, and it’s fantastic.
They’re not like my records. Sometimes I can’t feel them, but I really
appreciate them. Sometimes I can feel them and I go, “Holy shit, how did
they do that? How did they make that record?” I know they layered it.
It’s not like a documentary where something happens and you take a
picture, cinema verite. This is a movie. Somebody created all the
scenes, and there was the dialogue, and then they did the dialogue
again, and there was the Foley to do the sounds, and they did all the
stuff, and everything’s perfect. But it’s still good.

There’s
nothing wrong with that. It’s just a different way of doing it than I
could ever do, because I have so little ability to do that, that it
would really suck. Over and over again, getting it right. That’s why I’m
flat, that’s why it doesn’t matter that there’s bad notes. That doesn’t
mean it’s not production. It just means it’s the kind of production
that we do.

Some people are here tonight that I’ve worked with
over the ages that are just really incredible people. Al Schmitt’s here
tonight. And Niko Bolas is here. I really appreciate these guys,
especially Al, because he’s the father of what’s going on here, and he’s
still here! He has staying power. He was recording the way that I want
to record now. I’m going to make a record with Al. We’re talking about
making a record together where there’s only one mic, but we do a huge
orchestra. And when we finish doing that performance, and every guy’s
standing the right length from the mic. The background vocal is like
“Hey, hey, hey, hey,” and of course I’m up here, but they’re right
there, so it sounds like that there. So we’re going to do it that way.
We’re not going to mix it: we’re going to do it, and mix it while we do
it. Everybody can get in the right place, and if it’s not right, we’ll
move the bass up. Move the bass closer. It’s not loud enough? Move the
amp closer, then! It sounds good, but it’s just too quiet, so move it
up. Move it in, and the drums? Leave it over there, go back farther.

Do
you know how fun that is to do? That is so much fun. It’s like playing
music; it’s not making music, it’s playing it. I love doing these
things. And I’m anxious to do something I’ve never done before, because
there were great records made that way.

There’s something that
happens with one mic. When everyone sings into one mic, when everybody
plays into the same mic: I’ve just never been able to do that, with some
rare instances like when I record in a recording booth from a 1940s
state fair. I got that sound by closing myself into a telephone booth.
And I notice, it sounds just like an old record. And I like the sound of
old records! I’ve always loved that.

So all I’m trying to say is
I’m one of you. You honor me, you’re honoring yourself. It’s not me:
it’s you. It’s what we do. Thank you so much.

Digital. Digital is
not bad. But Xerox is not good. I always like to say Picasso was really
happy to see original Picassos everywhere, but when he went into some
places and saw Xeroxes of Picassos, it didn’t make him as happy, because
he thought people thought that we was making those things.
The
thing we do is, we make great stuff in the studio and then we kiss its
ass goodbye, because nobody’s ever going to hear it. That’s unfortunate,
and it didn’t use to be that way. That’s something that happened to us:
that’s an injury we sustained, and it deeply hurt us. So the time has
come for us to recover and to bring music back to the people in a way
that they can recognize it in their souls, through the window of their
souls, their ears. So they can feel and vibrate and so that they can get
goose bumps. We cherish those fucking goose bumps. We really need
those.

Being impressed by something, and how cool it is, and how
sharp it is, and how snappy it is, is one thing. That translates into
almost any media. But when you’re singing something very soulful from
your heart, and the echo is perfect and everything’s great and you’re
using maybe an acoustic chamber and everything sounds great. And then
you listen to it and you love it, but you hear it somewhere else and
it’s gone, that’s terrible. We don’t like that. Not many of us like
that, we’re not happy about it.

So we’re trying to change that,
and we’re trying to make it better. We’re trying to make music sound
technically better, and that’s what I want to do. So we have a player
that plays whatever the musicians made digitally, and that’s going to
come out. We’re announcing that at SXSW, we’re introducing it, it’s
called Pono, and that’s my commercial, thank you very much.”

Thursday, January 9, 2014

"Kind of amazing to me that only today did I figure out (literally), what this song is probably about. Not that anyone would really care, but for the few of you who might, here goes....I think the song is about me actually. "Back in the day, Elliott was my opener on a few tours. Around that time I was getting a LOT of attention from labels, record company people, music "business" people, etc. Elliott would often get totally ignored by these people when they came to our show. They would miss his performance or be at the bar talking/schmoozing or whatever till I "The Headliner" came on. I would always ask them "Did you see Elliott, did you see him?" So often they hadn't. Many of them just didn't get it. "He looks depressed", or "He looks like...." or whatever. USE YOUR FUCKING EARS! I would be thinking to myself...HOW can they NOT get him???

"Anyway, this was when he was just beginning to put stuff out on KRS, and before he would meet some very good people who would become his management later. So, this was very early on-in the in between phase of Cavity Search/Krs. I was in the middle of a bidding war and there were major labels paying for some of my recordings for development deals with a split release on an indy. So, one of the labels (I dont remember who), paid for me to go down to Portland to see if he could help me write some songs, and finish up some I had begun. "So keeping all of this in mind, the song "I figured you out", is kind of about all of THAT stuff that was going on. In the song, the "YOU" he is referring to "I've seen YOU watching her" etc, are the label guys, while HE is being "ignored" by them..The parts about the "ambition and promise, and your addiction to fame, and having dollar signs after their name"...it's about the fact that here he was with a request to "help her write", and maybe he was saying to himself "I kind of wish it was me"....So, what I find sort of incredible, is the fact that he set out to write kind of a pop song (but he had that record label's request to help with songs in his mind)...I think he was thinking of "The Eagles" in that the label might have wanted "hits and hooks", but in disguise as something "cool"-which obviously he did NOT think the Eagles were...I mean, if you're comparing the Eagles to The Flying Burrito Brothers, um, no...So, he didn't think any of this was cool at all.....Yet, the ironic thing....it turned out SO FUCKING COOL! So, anyway, this is what I'm pretty sure the song is about."It's about a period of time in which he wasn't sure where he fit in. If he fit in. Who did he "figure out"? I personally think it was the record industry that he figured out. He set out to write something to try to help me...he thought he'd wind up with a crappy pop song with a mindset of this...but he could never be anything BUT honest-which is one of the reasons why I think he was so sheep-ish about the song in the first place....there are other metaphors mixed in to the song...but the main theme, I think I'm right about. So glad he was a friend and said yes to recording this. He's playing everything here by the way. We recorded it just a few days after he wrote it." Mary Lou Lord